As a local business, finding new ways to gain customers and invest in the growth of your company is essential. Growing your business starts with setting goals, knowing where you currently stand in relation to those goals, and creating an actionable plan to reach them.

But how can you ensure you consistently reach these goals and grow with your team?

It can be challenging to navigate the best plan for your team, but our sales funnel template can help you develop a stable, effective, and successful process for your company.

What is a sales funnel template?

A sales funnel template is a layout that provides a strategic journey to create awareness towards your brand, broaden your audience, and generate traffic to your company

Creating a reliable sales funnel for your team to guide potential clients is vital to this entire process. The sales funnel template and its effects will be what enables your brand to succeed.

When using a sales funnel template, you can display your company’s ideas, strategies, and goals to boost lead generation.

In essence, you are creating a strategic path to guide your potential customers, which will eventually lead to a sale. This path will be filled with stepping stones that will guide your team and provide them with the proper strategies to build success over time, gain customers, and increase sales simultaneously. Using a sales funnel template is the first step in this journey.

How do I create a sales funnel?

To start, you have to understand the audience you want to reach with the sales funnel you are developing. Identify who your potential clients are and how you can cultivate lead generation for your company. Focus on their needs and goals as customers, and demonstrate how they can benefit from the product or service you offer.

Be sure these prospects are qualified to be your clients by understanding their pain points and how your team can alleviate them. Do the necessary research through surveys or polls to determine what product or service can benefit your future customers most.

Show that you have their best interest in mind by listening to them and developing your brand accordingly.

Utilizing Podium’s suite of marketing tools is an effective way to reach your potential customers and generate a flow of traffic to your landing page. You can also use social media platforms, blog posts, or ppc advertisements to help bring in new clients online.

See which strategies work best to grasp your audience and incorporate them into the plan that you’re developing. Not every platform will automatically attract your specific potential customers, so figuring out which platforms they use most will increase your chances of connecting with them. It may require some additional research up front, but it will save you valuable time and resources in the long run.

Ultimately, you want to create a sales process that your team can follow to ensure you are gaining potential customers and converting them into paying customers by the end of the journey.

3 parts of a sales funnel

Any sales funnel can be broken down into three parts, the top, the middle, and the bottom. This flow of the funnel helps you understand the importance of each section as you go through the process of designing the most fitting sales funnel for your company.

The top of the sales funnel

Also known as the “exploratory phase” or the client stage, it is crucial to develop a base of potential customers and engage with them appropriately. During the top funnel, you create brand awareness and present ways your company can meet clients’ needs. It is crucial to have a base of communication established with future clients and to understand how your sales team can best grab their attention. Your sales funnel template will help you gain a better understanding of this.

The middle of the sales funnel.

This is the beginning of converting potential customers into leads. During this time, it is important to generate interest in your product or service and inform your audience about your company’s goals. A sales funnel template will help develop communication between your team and the leads, making them feel comfortable while gaining trust in your brand. By using Podium Inbox, you can initiate the conversation and establish yourself as a communicative and accessible business.

The bottom of the sales funnel.

The final stage will involve using specific selling techniques to persuade potential clients into making a purchase decision. You want clients to be researching your product and deciding if they can use and benefit from it. At the bottom of the funnel, you want to convince your audience that they need your product or service one last time and allow them to make a decision.

Once their decision is made, you have the opportunity to convert your leads to paying customers. Lead conversion rates determine whether or not you’ve created a successful sales funnel.

The 6 components of a sales funnel template

In a sales funnel, there are six steps you will take to create a guide for members of your sales team to follow. Each step will help your company create more sales as you adapt to your customers’ needs and provide solutions through your plan, utilizing strategic tools along the way.

These stepping stones will lead your potential customers down a path towards becoming a paying customer, ending in a sale.

01. Awareness

Bring awareness to your brand by using different marketing tactics to reach your targeted audience. Awareness is at the top of the funnel because it is the first step to engage with qualified potential customers and find the audience you seek.

02. Interest

In this stage, you will ensure you keep your potential clients interested by showcasing products they can use. Make sure you understand the needs/wants of your clients and the products they can benefit from purchasing.

To find more information on this, you may need to conduct research to figure out the components of your clients’ needs and develop a proper solution. This lets potential customers know that you have their needs in mind, and that you will always work towards providing products that your clients can utilize.

03. Consideration

The consideration phase is when you educate potential customers on the products you have available and share new products that you have in the pipeline. At this stage, you can reiterate that your company has what it takes to continuously provide new solutions to your customers’ needs, even as they change.

04. Intent

As you enter the middle funnel, you want to make sure your intentions are in the right place, and ensure that the customer is top priority throughout this entire process. Their satisfaction is key to building success continuously throughout your company.

05. Evaluation

The evaluation stage is where you will evaluate the experience so far, develop further understanding of the customer and the purchase they’re intending to make, and continue guiding them accordingly through your sales funnel. A sales funnel template can help you improve and streamline this process.

During this time, you want to address any customer’s concerns or answer any questions regarding your product or service. It can be informative and ensure your lead generation is successful.

After getting to know your potential customer, you may upsell or downsell where you see fit. Upselling or downselling can help ensure you make a final sale while meeting your customer’s financial needs.

06. Purchase

The purchase is the final, and most significant stage in your sales funnel. During the purchase phase, you finalize the purchase decision and turn a potential customer into a closed lead. You want to guarantee your clients are satisfied and you have met every one of their needs with the product or service you provide.

After finalizing the purchase, send review or feedback requests through Podium as a way to boost your online reputation and improve your business. Insist they bring in potential clients they may meet who can benefit from your brand, and most importantly, use Podium as a way to keep in touch.

Additionally, using a product like Podium Campaigns allows clients to receive texts about sales, benefits, events, and more from your company so you can keep the conversation alive post-purchase. Campaigns are a convenient way to advertise upcoming products and share important news with customers all through text.

Perfecting your sales funnel.

Creating the perfect sales funnel takes time, but helps to instill confidence internally in your team, and externally in potential customers. A sales funnel template is a simple way to create an actionable process that helps your business achieve its goals.

Use your sales funnel to develop a flow of curious customers, turn them into leads and generate traffic to your brand. Show that your strategies have the best chance at lead generation and prove your company can flourish at a consistent rate.

Using Podium’s various marketing tools can help guide your team towards success, increase your customer base, and help your business to thrive.

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